Co- branding trends in the city strategies in A context of creating hubs

1. Co-branding trends in the city strategies in A context of creatinghubs Prof. Jan van der Borg KU Leuven & University Ca’ Foscari of Venice

2. THE CONTEXT • Cities all over the world are now fully immersed in attracting external investments, international visitors, mega-events and knowledge and creative human capital. They thereto strive to strengthen one (or more) images that their target groups seems to find attractive. • Image planning strategies have thus become essential instruments for cities that seek to thrive in the global economy. • Branding often stresses the unique aspects of city culture and of creativity: attractive urban images are promoted. • Moreover, the leading paradigm that cities tend to embrace is changing quite rapidly.

3. “Urban regimes (adapted from belligni and Ravazzi, 2012) • “The Fordist City” • “The City as an Engine of Growth” (EURICUR, 1987) • “The Polytechnic City” (creative cities, creative classes, innovation hubs, knowledge cities, …) • “The Pyrotechnic City” (“places to play” - Judd and Fainstein, 1999)) • The Blue-Green City (The City as Engines of Sustainable Competitiveness, EURICUR, 2014; UNDP, 2017) • In reality, we are often dealing with mixes. In any case, the stakeholders tend to change continuously and the images cities want to promote differ between regimes.

4. URBAN Branding - SOME starting points • ‘‘A Brand image is the current view of the customers about a brand. It signifies what the brand presently stands for. In addition, it is the overall impression in consumers’ mind that formed from all sources’’ (Vanolo 2008). • ‘‘Places get to be real brands only when the visitors say these are distinctive as images’’ (Laundry & Bianchini 2008; • ‘‘A brand is originally a mark of identity’’ (Unsworth 2008) • “A framework and toolkit for differentiating, focusing and organizing around the location’s competitive and distinctive identity.” (Baker 2012) • “Urban branding is not only limited to the promotion of a positive image of the city, but it extends more, to change it into an urban experience” • Co-branding could be either be attaching the branding strategy to national branding (Made in Italy), to regional branding (Trentino), or to local branding (New York).

5. (URBAN) hubs - A Fluid and Fuzzy Concept (Toivonen and Friederici, 2015) • 1. Urban Hubs build collaborative communities with entrepreneurial individuals at the center: New entrants to a hub expect to find a sense of community. The entrantsassumethatwithin the hub community the spontaneoussharing of ideas and resourceswillflourish. A relatedexpectationisthathubsshouldfunction on an egalitarianbasis • 2. Urban Hubs attract diverse members with heterogeneous knowledge: ’Strong belief that good things happen automtically when diverse people come together and collaborate. Hubmembers welcome diversity in a broadsense’ • 3. Urban Hubs facilitate creativity and collaboration in physical and digital space: Hubs are set up in metropolitan areas and possess striking stylistic similarities (‘Wooden furniture, large desks, brick walls, whiteboards, a football table, at least some artwork, shared kitchen spaces, a coffee bar, meeting rooms, and bean bags’) • 4. Urban Hubs localize global entrepreneurial culture. Hubsviewthemselvesasmembers of a decidedly global culture and their core (and shared) values are shaped by the “global social entrepreneurshipmovement” or the “startup revolution.”

6. ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS for place branding • 1. Distinctiveness • 2. Authenticity Authenticity in place branding is about people co-creating things that matter to them) • 3. Memorability • 4. Co-Creation Place branding is not a top-down exercise but will only produce results when it is supported by a strong form of governance, a strong coalition between government, business, civil society and target • 5. Place Making Place branding is not about a good slogan, logo and nice promotional campaigns.

7. Co-branding • Co-Branding is a marketing strategy that involves strategic alliance of multiple brand names jointly used on single product o (Erevelles and Stevenson 2008) • Co-branding includes the presentation and offering of multiple brands and its products to consumers, but under a more defined single strategy and marketing plan.

8. Tenclassicalingredients of urbanbranding • IconicBuildings • Mega Events • Set for Movies and TV Series • Waterfront Development • Museums • City Lights • Urban Blue and Green • Innovation, Incubation and Education • Heritage • Creativeness

9. BottoM up approach • “The totality of thoughts, feelings, and expectations that people hold about a location. It’s the reputation and the enduring essence of a place and represents its distinctive promise of value, providing it with a competitive edge.” (Baker 2012) • “Local residents and workers have a significant role to play in the development of place brands” (Freire 2007)

10. Placebranding: A New Chapter? • Sustainabilityis a termthatistaking on an increasinglycomplexrelevance. • Networks are essential for place (co)branding. • Fullyintegrating the concepts of “placemaking” or “placeshaping” and “place marketing”. • Understanding and leveraging the brand hierarchy of yournation, region, city and place. • How to be a place brand in the digitalage. • Are youyourself an effectiveadvocate for yourplace brand to yourcitizens, to yourenterpreneurs and to government? • Attracting and developing talent (knowmads) isbeingtalkedabout more and more, and competitionisveryfierce.